This undergraduate level paper is an examination of the Lord of the Rings from the standpoint that it is, at its core, an exploration of the Christian archetypes and legends of Europe. J. R. R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" is a massive epic fantasy of more than a half-million words. It is also a hugely complex work, with its own complicated chronology, cosmogony, geography, nomenclature and multiple languages, including two forms of elvish. The plot is so grand, moreover, that it casts backward to the formation of first things while glancing forward to the end of time. While "The Lord of the Rings" is many things, it is primarily a symbolic text that taps into the archetypal knowledge of our long-distant past. 8 pgs, bibliography lists 8 sources.
